Court of Appeal rules on requirements of the law of nuisance, and the effects of a statutory scheme of regulation

The Court of Appeal, in Barratt Homes v Welsh Water [2013] EWCA Civ 233 last week rejected the Defendant's contentions the law of nuisance necessarily requires there to be an emanation onto the Claimant's land, or always requires unreasonable user of land, and accepted that connection of water and sewerage services are an essential adjunct of development of land, and that interference with drainage may be capable of amounting to nuisance, on the basis of argument by Steven Gasztowicz QC supported by Clare Parry.

However, the Court considered losses resulting from an erroneous refusal by the statutory undertaker to allow a connection, even though backed up by pouring concrete into the Claimant's pipe, were not recoverable given the existence of the scheme of statutory regulation in place in the water industry.